ASUS Essence STX II 7.1 Sound Card Review

Join us as we test and review the ASUS Essence STX II 7.1 sound card. Asus has some very big shoes to fill and a possibly a more impressive feat of surpassing such well known audio cards, the questions stands will they succeed?

Posted on: 07/17/2014 09:33 AM
Nice, will be interesting to read.
(So this is some upgraded/improved version of the STX then?)

EDIT: This sounds interesting as well.

Quote:

We have decided to produce an in depth test/modification guide for various high end opamps and the STX II card. Look for it coming soon from the Guru3D Audio Lab. We will be testing high end integrated opamps aswell as well known discrete units and a few lab tips and tricks. Stay tuned, it will be worth the wait!

War child
Master Guru

Posts: 286

Posted on: 07/17/2014 09:53 AM
Loved the STX I,

Things can only get better.

Ven0m
Maha Guru

Posts: 1541

Posted on: 07/17/2014 09:56 AM
Thanks for the review, Hilbert.

It looks like an awesome card. I wonder if it would be an upgrade over D2X big enough to let me appreciate it. Also, I think I might rather like an external USB DAC (I'm not sure), but they cost even more.

mackintosh
Member Guru

Posts: 143

Posted on: 07/17/2014 09:56 AM
I'm curious, who buys these products? For a few of whatever is your local currency more wouldn't it make more sense to just buy a receiver and run an HDMI cable from your GPU and let it do the heavy lifting? I used sound cards for years but finally got tired of driver problems, incompatibilities, etc and just bought a mid range receiver. Everything still sounds just as good as it did before and I haven't looked back since.

Ven0m
Maha Guru

Posts: 1541

Posted on: 07/17/2014 10:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mackintosh

I'm curious, who buys these products? For a few of whatever is your local currency more wouldn't it make more sense to just buy a receiver and run an HDMI cable from your GPU and let it do the heavy lifting? I used sound cards for years but finally got tired of driver problems, incompatibilities, etc and just bought a mid range receiver. Everything still sounds just as good as it did before and I haven't looked back since.

It's another viable option. The initial cost would be greater, but in a long run it might be better.

Picking a random receiver is definitely a no-no for me. When I was buying headphones recently, I was given a receiver that was said to be good to test a few sets of cans, and finally at home a pair of Xonar D2X + custom amp wiped the floor with that store's receiver. It wasn't even close.

Thank you for suggestion. When I have some free time, and/or decide to get some quality speakers, I'll definitely have to dig it more.

nikavelli
Master Guru

Posts: 413

Posted on: 07/17/2014 10:37 AM
The big, gaping question left after reading this review: How does the STX II compare to other sound cards on the market? More specifically, how does the STX II (stock OPAMPS) compare to a ST (LME49720x2 OPAMPS)? Would you say the sound is clearer and more refined? Fuller? Warmer? Hard to distinguish differences?

I ask because most of us sound Guru's already own sound cards and would like to know if this is an upgrade/sidegrade from what we have.

moab600
Ancient Guru

Posts: 4743

Posted on: 07/17/2014 10:55 AM
STXII Vs ZXR, who is better? that is the Q

419$ lol, which means in my country, Israel it will be more like 600-700$. i rather suicide and buy two Titan Z

Ven0m
Maha Guru

Posts: 1541

Posted on: 07/17/2014 02:58 PM
I've just checked the prices. Perhaps it'll be similar in your countries - over here in Poland, it's actually cheaper to get regular STX II non-7.1 and buy extra Xonar H6 module. It's still a lot, at least for me, but it's around $330-$350 converted to USD, and we have 23% VAT.

LesserHellspawn
Master Guru

Posts: 382

Posted on: 07/17/2014 03:04 PM
Might well go Asus once I build my next rig. Ever since Creative dropped 7.1, they're no longer an option. And EAX is legacy.

Only reason it cost that much is because asus is not selling the STX II in the usa atm. So you gonna have to pay a arm and a leg just to get it imported. That cost more then my Bifrost uber, that alread pretty close to the price I paid for my T90. For that price to get it imported, it wouldn't even be worth it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mackintosh

I'm curious, who buys these products? For a few of whatever is your local currency more wouldn't it make more sense to just buy a receiver and run an HDMI cable from your GPU and let it do the heavy lifting? I used sound cards for years but finally got tired of driver problems, incompatibilities, etc and just bought a mid range receiver. Everything still sounds just as good as it did before and I haven't looked back since.

Receivers take alot of room at the desktop, also these sound card's have features that GPU audio's doesn't have as well usually work better with muiti channel in games that do not have Xaudio2 as in games that are FmodEX or openAL or custom API, I had a friend who originally used his GPU HDMI for audio with his receiver's but had dozen of games outputting in 2 channel over the few he had that was Xaudio2 outputting in 5.1, so he had to grab a Cheap Z to get 5.1 in all of his games and not few of them, he didn't use optical but what U hear to get PCM 5.1 sent to his Receiver HDMI as it comes up as a audio device.

Also people also have headphone's that req a lot of power to be driven correctly which a lot of receiver's headphone jack wont do a good job with, I tried my self with a couple of headphone's that was 250ohms a one that was 600ohm's my receiver headphone jack drove them poorly. A lot of people prefer to use analog over HDMI and Toslink because of the sound card's that they are using. Some times people do run out to a external headphone amp from the card or even send the functions of the card's to their external dac/amp. Tho some receivers do have a line out connection that will let people plug headphone amp's into the receiver's.

I have a receiver my self but I don't use it any more as I tend to use headphone's and my receiver is no match for my desktop setup. You would need to spend a lot of money on a higher end receiver and then speakers to get the performance of a lot of these external dac/amp setups that people use , to pull the dsp features from cheap sound cards. Like Dolby headphone that some receiver's actually have and then CMSS3D headphone and SBX surround headphone.

Ven0m
Maha Guru

Posts: 1541

Posted on: 07/17/2014 03:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LesserHellspawn

Might well go Asus once I build my next rig. Ever since Creative dropped 7.1, they're no longer an option. And EAX is legacy.

You should definitely listen to some interviews about sound design in games. The most of them are mixed for 5.1, not 7.1, and using 7.1 may actually decrease the sound quality and positioning.

GenClaymore
Ancient Guru

Posts: 5493

Posted on: 07/17/2014 03:16 PM
Not many games are 7.1 now a day's only certain ones. Usually the ones that do not have in game speaker controls usually support 7.1, Tho there are some times game's that does give the option to inside the game to do 7.1 but most of them that i seen lately only goes up to 5.1 but I have seen some still going up to 7.1. It just most people that do use 7.1 tend to be using either 7.1 receiver's or very old 7.1 PC speakers that. Demand is really the whole reason for creative cutting 7.1 support just like they cut 4.1 and 6.1.

antonyfrn
Maha Guru

Posts: 1030

Posted on: 07/17/2014 04:04 PM
@Hilbert thank you this just made me want a new sound card now...

Phoebus was a mishap that asus created that's why its not in the comparison. Also the same reason why it's is EOL early. It's general a big step back from the original STX and ST when asus created the Phoebus with it's badly dowe software suite. Diamond thought it be a fun idea to make a budget card using a similar chip with the same exact software suite the phoebus came with. I had to give the diamond card away as I couldn't sell it do to the phoebus style software suite. Both ZXR and STX II even the original STX/ST is the better card.

Quote:

Originally Posted by moab600

STXII Vs ZXR, who is better? that is the Q

It's down to which has the features that you want, because both have swap able op-amp's which let you change the sound signature of the cards.

moab600
Ancient Guru

Posts: 4743

Posted on: 07/17/2014 05:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Glasofruix

What, no phoebus?

i had phoebus card like for 7 months till i replaced it with SBZ. software is poor, hardware is good, results are bad bad card.

SBZ is way better than phoebus sound quality wise, never looked back.

i afraid STX II would suffer same faith, bad drivers.

kosh_neranek
Master Guru

Posts: 210

Posted on: 07/17/2014 06:43 PM
Had STX I with Sennheiser HD650 for a few weeks and was very, very happy with what I heard. And now it's time to get my own. Am surely gonna order the STX II only without the 7.1 as that's irrelevant and finally get my own pair of HD650s Thanks Hilbert, was waiting for this review

AcidSnow
Master Guru

Posts: 326

Posted on: 07/17/2014 07:16 PM
I'm never going to buy another Audio card ever again. The last one I bought was in 1999. I've been on a A/V receiver since 2007, HDMI input all the way baby